Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Cream of Tomato and Cheddar Soup

Another warm recipe from The Red Lion Inn. If you double click on the image, it informs you that:
"This is the official soup of the Red Lion Inn Golf Tournament!!"

Excellent.

Cream of Tomato and Cheddar Soup

1 sm onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, leaves removed
3 carrots, peeled
2 lbs Italian plum tomatoes
3 tsp pickling spice tied in cheesecloth bag
4 TB extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 ts Tabasco
2 Qts Veal Stock
3/4 lb Cheddar Cheese, shredded
5 oz butter
5 oz flour
8 oz butter
1 cup heavy cream
S&P to taste

-Chop the onions, celery and carrots finely. Saute in olive oil.
-Add tomatoes, bag of spices, sauces, and simmer for 1 hr. Stir often.
-Remove spice bag and puree mixture until smooth.
-Simmer mixture with the spice bag and the veal stock. Bring to boil and simmer until reduced by 1/4.
-Heat 5 oz butter and flour until stirred together into a roux.
-Beat roux into soup. Gradually add Cheddar Cheese, remaining butter, cream, and s&p.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Mumford & Sons and Applesauce Cake

Technology Oops.

In attempting to upload this recipe, I accidently dragged it into my iTunes. It now appears as the album art for "White Blank Page" by Mumford & Sons... oh well.


I'd like to think that band enjoys a good applesauce cake.

Betty Crocker Applesauce Cake

2 1/2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/4 ts baking powder
1 1/2 ts baking soda
1 1/2 ts salt
3/4 ts cinnamon
1/2 ts cloves
1/2 ts allspice
1/2 cup shortening/butter
1/2 cup water
1 cup raisins, chopped
1 1/2 cup applesauce
1 large egg

-Mix all dry ingredients.
-Beat together butter, water, raisins and applesauce.
-Beat in egg.
-Add dry and wet mixes, and stir.
-Bake in 9" x 13" pan for 45-60 minutes at 350 degrees.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

Grammy Gertie used to cook an enormous Thanksgiving feast, usually to feed 2 dozen people or so. I remember walking into the house, and seeing all available counter space being used to cool pies -- including in the hallway. It made it very challenging to chase ones siblings around the house without knocking over the pies.

To Emily, Ethan, Lydia, Mike, Craig, our parents, our kids, our families...
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Pumpkin Pie

1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin
2 eggs
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 TB molasses
1 cup milk
1 tsp salt

-Mix above ingredients together, and pour into pie crust.
-Bake at 425 degrees for 45 minutes.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Peeny Cheese Ball


Speaking of untraditional, I have very clear memories of Grammy serving cheese balls as part of the Thanksgiving appetizer spread. They werebright orange, and about the size of a small grapefruit. She used to sit it on her wooden hutch on a plate with some crackers. Self service.




"Peeny Cheese Ball
made by Ethel Decker
Clarence Decker

8 oz Rotarian
3 pkgs Philadelphia Cream Cheese
1/2 lb Roquefort Cheese
1/4 lb butter

-Leave ingredients at room temperature.
-Mix together and mold into a ball.

-Then mix together
18 oz cream cheese
3 TB butter
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

-Use this as a coating for the ball.
-Refrigerate for 24 hours. Take out of the fridge 1 hour before serving.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Failure to Pie...

Good evening everyone,
I just spoke to Grammy Gertie a few hours ago, and she extends a Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

I called her tonight because my new office (of my new job, of my new career!) held a Thanksgiving potluck today. There were some untraditional dishes -- guacamole, greek salad, Elmo cupcakes, etc. I chose to bring the pie.
Unfortunately, I'm not as flawless at this pie making thing as Grammy is....

Literally, I got up at 5 a.m. this morning, and proceeded to roll out dough and slice apples in the dark. It took forever. I more or less slept-cooked, not realizing until 7am that I'd forgotten to add some non-essential ingredients. No bother. These were going to be amazing pies.

By 8am, the pies had baked, but not cooled. It was time to leave for work, and I have a half hour commute on a crowded subway. Hmm... clearly I didn't work out the logistics ahead of time.
First, I tried walking with them in a bag to the T stop. They were too fragile even for that. I ended up hailing a cab -- an expensive, luxurious ride for my baked friends. I was determined that they make it to the office in one piece.

It was pointless. When I got there, the pies were all smashed up into a mush of crust and filling. I might as well have brought apple crisp. Pies make terrible commuters. Luckily my coworkers were nice about it.

The best thing though, was when I told Grammy about my pie troubles, she said, "Well, how many pies did you make?" It almost sounded a little competitive.
"Two," I said.
She quietly chuckled and said, "Well that's... okay."


On to the recipe! This never appeared on the Thanksgiving table to my memory, but it was in the recipe box. Double click the image to enlarge it.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Cranberry Nut Loaf

COUNTDOWN TO THANKSGIVING
We're one week out from Turkey Day, which used to be Grammy's main event. You're going to have to figure out how to roast a turkey on your own, because she didn't have a written recipe for that. She must have memorized it.

In the mean time, this would be nice to have on the table.

Cranberry Nut Loaf
2 cups sifted flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 ts baking powder
1/2 ts soda
1 ts salt
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup orange juice
1 TB grated orange rind
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped

-Sift flour, sugar, baking power, soda and salt.
-Cut shortening into mixture until coarse.
-Combine orange juice, egg and grated rind.
-Pour wet mix into dry mix and stir. Add cranberries and nuts.
-Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Harvard Beets

You know what vegetable sounds wicked smart?

Harvard Beets

3 cans whole beets
2 TB whole cloves
1 cup sugar
1 cup white vinegar
3 TB vegetable oil
3 TB ketchup
1/8 ts salt
3 TB cornstarch
1 ts vanilla

-Drain beets, but save 1 1/2 cups juice.
-Cut beets into wedges.
-In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, vinegar, ketchup and salt. Put cloves in a strainer, and add. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove cloves.
-Combine cornstarch and beet juice until smooth. Stir into sugar mixture. Bring to boil.
-Add beets and vanilla.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Quiche Lorraine

Happy Monday everyone,
Grammy's recipe collection includes this one for Quiche Lorraine. Though the recipe itself has instructions for how to make the pie crust, I'm going to leave that part out. You can double click on the recipe if you really want to know... but remember, Grammy used to occasionally cheat with store bought pie crust :)

Quiche Lorraine

6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup Swiss cheese, shredded
3 lg eggs
1 TB flour
1/2 ts salt
1/8 ts nutmeg
2 cups milk
1 TB butter or margarine

-Preheat oven to 425.
-Roll pie crust/pastry into 11" circle. Fit into 9" pie plate, fill with weights, and bake for 12 minutes.
-Reduce oven temp to 375.
-Sprinkle bacon and cheese evenly on pastry shell.
-Whisk eggs together with flour, salt, nutmeg and milk. Pour into crust.
-Melt butter in saucepan until browned, and drizzle over top.
-Bake 30-35 minutes.

-

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Kit's New Orleans Shrimp Mousse

This recipe comes from my Aunt Kit!
Grammy Gertie appears to have halved the recipe (the original recipe yielded 1 quart!). We're going to use the measurements written in the margin.



New Orleans Shrimp Mousse

1/2 can condensed tomato soup
1 envelope gelatin, dissolved in 1/8 cup cold water
4 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
2 cans shrimp, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup onion, chopped

-Heat tomato soup, add gelatin.
-Combine the remaining ingredients, and pour into (Jello) mold.
-Chill, and serve with crackers.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Cheddar Cheese Soup


Hey baby, it's cold outside....

Okay, it's not quite Christmas season or anything (though Macy's employees were putting up garlands today), but it's cold enough to feel like it.

Here's a nice, warm, Americana-sounding soup recipe for election night.
(Double click the recipe image to enlarge)